Example traditional page and spa

Contents

• 1. Traditional Web Apps VS Single Page Apps
• 2. API
• 3. API Architecure Styles
  • 3.1. REST
    • 3.1.1. Data formats
    • 3.1.2. Routing
    • 3.1.3. Http Methods (Http Verbs)
    • 3.1.4. REST Principles
    • 3.1.5. CORS
  • 3.2. SOAP
  • 3.3. GRPC
  • 3.4. GraphQL

1. Traditional Web Apps VS Single Page Apps

• There are two general approaches to building web applications today:
  • Traditional web applications that perform most of the application logic on the server (Server Side Rendering (SSR)).
  • Single-page applications (SPAs) that perform most of the user interface logic in a web browser, communicating with the web server primarily using web APIs.
• Use traditional web applications when:
  • Your application's client-side requirements are simple or even read-only.
  • Your application needs to function in browsers without JavaScript support.
• Use a SPA when:
  • Your application must expose a rich user interface with many features.
  • Your team is familiar with JavaScript, TypeScript, or Blazor WebAssembly development.
  • Your application must already expose an API for other (internal or public) clients.
    • This is can be controlled...

2. API

3. API Architecure Styles

3.1. REST

• REST APIs are all about data, no UI logic is exchanged.
• JSON is the common data format that is used both for requests and responses.
• REST APIs are decoupled from the clients that use them.

3.1.1. Data formats

3.1.2. Routing

3.1.3. Http Methods (Http Verbs)

• GET - Get a Resource from the Server.
• PATCH - Update parts of an existing Resource on the Server.
• POST - Post a Resource to the Server (i.e. create or append Resource).
• PUT - Put a Resource onto the Server (i.e. create or overwrite a Resource).
• DELETE - Delete a Resource on the Server.
• OPTIONS - Determine whether follow up Request is allowed (sent automatically).

3.1.4. REST Principles

• Uniform Interface
  • Clearly defined API endpoints with clearly defined request + response data structure.
• Stateless Interactions
  • Server and client don’t store any connection history, every request is handled seperately.
• Cacheable
  • Servers may set caching headers to allow the client to cache responses.
• Client-Server
  • Server and client are separated, client is not concerned with persistent data storage.
• Layered System
  • Server may forward requests to other APIs.
• Code on Demand
  • Executable code may be transferred from server to client,

3.1.5. CORS

• Cross-Origin Resource Sharing.
• CORS errors occur when using an API that does not set CORS headers.

3.2. SOAP

3.3. GRPC

3.4. GraphQL